Book Excerpt: The Nation’s Homeopath

If doctors today practised the way we did fifty years ago, we wouldn’t need Seema Aunty from the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. Back then, a doctor was a healer, family friend and even a matchmaker. Scores of families would ask ‘the good doctor’ to look for a suitable boy or girl for their eligible children. I have had such requests myself and was happy to help. The very existence of the phrase ‘the good doctor’ was indicative of the physician’s place in society—a person of decency who people consulted not just for health, but also family matters. A real mensch, as the Jews say. Those days, a patient was born at home and died at home. Today, both birth and death take place in a hospital, with more strangers than family members for company. In most cases today, the doctor is no longer a friend, no longer an unassuming God, but a brusque professional who merely thinks he is God. How did we get here?

An exploding population, a faster pace of life, consumerism, mobile phones and nuclear families have ensured that doctors are kept on their toes. When everyone has more money to make, another appointment to reach, when the phone is always buzzing, which doctor will sit down for a cup of tea and discuss cricket and alliances? No, she or he is Usain Bolt in a white coat. Always running. Why blame him or her either? Many medical colleges have ceased being noble, service-oriented organisations and have become financial plunderers, often run by politicians. Of the nearly 2600 medical colleges in the world, the largest number are in India (479). Fees amount to around one million a year, which means five million for the entire course.

A loan of that amount necessitates an equated monthly instalment (EMI) payback of approximately Rs 60,000 per month. No wonder medical students are stuck in a debt trap for years, and feel compelled to quickly recover costs. Taking regional and global headwinds into consideration, what does the present and future hold for Indian healthcare? What are the key things that are going to play a big role in the years to come? As a homeopath, I’m happy to say that alternative medicine is here to stay. People are better informed these days. They are fitness conscious, and have a healthy wariness towards mainstream drugs, given their chemical content and side effects. People are therefore more inclined to give alternative medicine a chance. Alternative medicine will not cure bullet wounds, but combined with activities such as yoga, meditation and exercise, it can help people manage many ailments without taking harmful medicines. Not for the first time, I will also mention the government’s Ayush initiative, which will definitely make more people consider alternative medicine, including homeopathy. This brings us to one of the drivers of the alternative medicine movement—mental health, which is going to be a key area in medicine.